A general strike is our best hope of real change.

It has been a summer filled with strikes here in the UK, with rail workers, Royal Mail workers and BT workers leading that charge. Barristers have also voted for strike action, and all of them are generally looking for the same thing - safer working conditions and better pay. And I think that’s something we can all sympathise with.

Ofgem have today announced the new price cap for energy and it’s shot up by 80% and will now be £3,549 per year. The price cap for people who don’t know puts a maximum per unit price on energy that reflects what it costs to buy energy on the wholesale market and supply it to our homes. In short it is the maximum amount an energy company can charge the average consumer. That means if you use more than the average, you can be charged more. It also doesn’t apply to businesses. So small local businesses, grassroots arts and music venues, they don’t have a price cap. Interesting then that whilst the average consumer sees their energy bill go through the roof, and numerous establishments are having to close their doors, that BP have reported their second-highest profits ever.

So let’s talk about the average consumer. Let’s talk about what financial life looks like for the average person in the UK. Total regular salary per month in the UK is £2,248 - regular pay being without added bonuses included. So base pay for the average person is £2,248 every month. Let’s immediately take away the monthly energy payment of £295.75 and we’re left with £1,952.25. Okay, that’s not looking too bad at the minute, but they’ve still got to pay their rent this month.

Great news for landlords, bad news for our average consumer, because monthly rent in the UK is now at an all time high of £1,126. And if you’re in London it’s an average of £2,257. That’s right, the average rent in London is £9 higher than the average monthly regular pay in the UK. But we’re taking the average of the UK so after paying their energy bill and their rent, our average consumer is left with £826.25. So they have a roof over their head and they have their energy bills paid, but they’ve got to get themselves to their job if they don’t work from home.

The cost of filling a 55 litre car hit £100 for the first time earlier this year, and the average cost to run a car in the UK is now £296 a month. That’s taking into account petrol, insurance, tax, and average repairs. So after our average consumer has paid their average rent, average energy bill, and average car costs they’re left with £530.25.

Now let’s look at other household bills. Whether our average consumer works at home or not, it’s 2022 so they’re going to be paying for broadband. The average cost of basic broadband in the UK is £28.33, £39.75 for a superfast fibre connection, and £61.90 for ultrafast connections. We’ll go down the middle and say our average consumer needs speeds of over 30mbps and is paying £39.75 for their broadband. That’s us down at £490.50.

So they’ve paid rent, they’ve paid energy, they’ve paid for the car, they’ve paid for broadband. The next bill through the door is water. The average water bill is £35, so that’s us down to £455.50.

The average council tax band in the UK is band D according to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. So our average consumer is likely going to be paying in the 2022-2023 year £1,966 a year, or £163.83 a month. So let’s take that off what our average consumer has left and that’s £291.67 left.

There’s some good news here though! Home insurance is at a record low, with average contents and building insurance at only £307 a year, which means we need to take only £25.58 off our average consumers monthly pot, leaving them with £266.09.

But unfortunately they’re still not finished with their expenses, it’s time to pay their mobile phone bill, which as of 2021 was on average £38.22 monthly. So that’s our average consumer down at £227.87. Take off the £13.25 a month for the TV Licence and it’s £214.62, assuming our average consumer uses only freeview and doesn’t pay for even one subscription service. But of course that wouldn’t made them an average consumer so let’s split the difference and say they pay for a monthly Sky subscription, as it is the UK’s largest pay-TV broadcaster. The basic package is £27. Assuming our average consumer doesn’t pay for HD channels, that’s them down at £187.62.

Public transport in the UK is also the most expensive of anywhere in Europe. And the average monthly cost on public transport is £140. Even if we knock £25 off that and say they’re going out less to save money, that still leaves only £72.62 each month.

£72.62. And that’s without considering that 59% of households in the UK have a pet and so chances are our average consumer is more likely to have one than not, and all the costs that come along with it. £72.62 a month to live on. Because thus far all that monthly salary has allowed our average consumer to do is survive. Let’s assume our average consumer is so downtrodden by life after all those payments that they simply save that £72.62 in the hopes they might one day be able to buy a house. The average house price in the UK is £281,161. £72.62 a month ends up as £871.44 a year which means in just the short short time of 322 years and 7 months, our average consumer will have enough for that average house. Even if we include bonuses and say the average monthly salary is £2,416, the outgoings are stil £2,175.38, leaving £240.62 each month. Or £2,887.44 a year, so it would still take 97 years to save for that house.

The reality of life in the UK in 2022 is this. The average person cannot afford to live, and they can only barely afford to survive. And surviving isn’t enough. Surviving without the joys of life is what is leading to the increasing mental health issues we are seeing in this country. And that’s the average consumer. There are 22.5% of people in the UK living in poverty, scraping by with far less than average. And we know that poverty disproportionately impacts people of colour (30% of Black Caribbeans, 45% of Black Africans, and 65% of Bangledeshi’s live in poverty compared with 20% of white British people.)

So I say to you, the average consumer reading this - do you think this is fair? After all, it is you average consumers that make the machine that is this country run. You are not just the average consumer, you are the everyday worker. It is you who keeps our trains running, our grocery shops open and stocked, our streets clean, our schools running, our parks maintained, our towns developing, our post delivered. It is you who takes those wages and heads out to put that money into local economy when you buy a new coat, or get lunch with friends, or book a local bar for works drinks. Is it fair that you are the cogs that make the machine work and as a thanks you cannot afford peace of mind? Without you turning up everyday, this country would come to a standstill, and that would mean wealthy people would start to lose what they value most - money.

I think the people have forgotten their power. I think the working class, the middle class, they’ve forgotten that not only is there a lot more of them than the wealthy elites, the role they play is a lot more integral to the everyday sustaining of this country. So what if you just stopped? What if collectively, all the workers said “Hold on a minute, this capitalist deal isn’t working for us anymore. We’re doing all the work and you lot keep getting richer and we’re scraping by. Not any more.” What if a general strike was organised for across the UK where we kept just enough doctors and nurses on duty to keep people alive, but otherwise we said no, we’re not picking up our tools until the cost comes down, the wages come up, and we get to do more than simply survive until we die.

How long do you think it would take for those in power to realise the power has shifted? If the people of 1789 France could create that much change before the invention of the telephone, why can’t 2022 UK with all the tools at our disposal do the same? It is time for action, and action from everyone who can. This is not a problem you can just sit back and hope someone else will sort for you. This is not a problem that’s going to get better on it’s own. This is a problem we need to get up and demand changes, and sometimes getting up looks like sitting down and saying no. So tell me, are you fed up enough to sit down and say no?